Two Parties Interested In Newcastle – Sale Within A Month?

We really hate to start this all over again. Trying to sell the club in the summer would have been OK if we had stayed in the Premier League, but not after just being relegated.

Mike Ashley – selling immediately after relegation is perilous to the club

We have to say, once again, that we are very concerned about the vacuum of leadership at the club right now, and news today from Sky Sports that Newcastle may have an owner within a month, is hardly helpful.

A month?

That’s when the players will report for pre-season training, so we have to hope a lot of work will go on before then – and we assume that Ashley will soon appoint Shearer as manager – but this strikes us as another bout of complete incopmpetance from Ashley.

He cannot allow this club to drift for 4 weeks in the summer – like we drifted for 4 months from last September, so can somebody at the club please tell us what’s going on?

The club is in critical danger right now – and work needs to get done – so who is doing it? That’s our simple question – can someone provide a simple answer?

Selling the club this summer, if we were in the Premier League would have been OK, as we mentioned above, because we would have had stability, but now we have just been relegated and don’t even have a manager – and have to sell about 12 players and bring new ones in this summer, isn’t this putting Newcastle into a huge deep hole?

Sky Sports is reporting that at least two parties have already expressed their interest in the club, and chief Sky Sports News’ chief reporter Bryan Swanson understands no bids have yet been received, since Mike Ashley put the club up for sale around 9:00 pm last night – Newcastle time.

Ashley is said to want around £100M for a quick sale, and willing to lose £150M on his investment to get out of owning the Tyneside club – and quickly.

Swanson is reporting there is every indication a deal will be concluded quickly after a high level of interest. There should be a lot of interest because this is a terrific deal for somebody.

It’s understood the two parties who have expressed an interest did not approach the club when it was initially put up for sale in September last year.

Well that’s interesting – so that means we can cut out all talk of the supposed bidders from South Africa, Nigeria, US, Far East and the moon – since these presumably are completely new bidders.

Leading London investment bank Seymour Pierce, who have supposedly been commissioned to sell the club, have yet to comment on the latest takeover talks, and only a couple of days ago Keith Harris denied the reason he was in Newcastle, only last week, was anything to do with selling the club – oh really.

We have to hope there is a very quick sale, but doesn’t all this seem like deja vu – all over again. 🙁

See people rejoice at Ashley’s departure, but it leaves us without an active owner for about a month or more, in probably the most critical time possible. Shearer won’t stop, Ashley will sell, we’ll be left in the Championship.

In my opinion this is pretty much the worst case scenario. Mike Ashely wants this stain removed from his life, he doesn’t care anymore he just wants out and as soon as possible. He’s not going to invest now or put up any cash for transfers as he wants out so no work will be done untill a new owner arrives. Will he sign shearer up to a long term contract knowing new owners will be around the corner? will shearer except if he doesn’t know who the owners will be? man it looking bleak to say the least.

well that’s us screwed then. Who’s going to decide which players to sell? who to keep? who’s going to scout and buy these players we need for out squad over-haul? this is a horrible situation and I can’t see any good coming from it unless new owners are in and running within a month but that’ll still leave us so far behind it will be unreal. I hope shearer is happy to stick around as a temp just to make sure we don’t completely crumble. ahhh crap we’re doomed.

Ashley and Llambias are a disgrace. I spoke to my friend who works at the club on Friday who stated that they both came along thinking that they could run any business because they are big business men and how difficult could it be. They’ve gambled with people’s livelihoods as well as the wellbeing and future of the club itself not to mention the thousands of fans who support Newcastle United.

They apparently outsourced as many things as possible to make a quick profit and put prices of everything else up because they thought people would pay regardless. This includes corporate sales stuff as well.

Ashley made a huge profit when he sold his business two years ago and for me simply got involved with NUFC as it would have been offered as an option amongst many other portfolios as a way of avoiding paying huge amounts of tax on his new windfall cash. He talks about the whole thing being a gamble. He’s admitted that but no one is crying over the loss of his supposed cash because it would’ve gone to the taxman anyway so in reality he hasn’t lost a penny. He would never have foregone due diligence if this was to be a serious business venture for him. I know we can’t swear on here but I have a few choice things to say to this coward of a man who is now simply running away from the reality of the problem. Shearer has obviously demanded that Ashley puts up with the cash to get our club back in the Premiership and he has balked at the thought of actually spending any of his paltry remaining £700m fortune on digging this club out of the hole he created by denting his fat backside on our club. As I’ve said I think that Ashley is a coward and is simply running away from the problem that he created leaving the rest of us with nothing but frustration and heartache at the demise of Newcastle United. I hope I never meet him in person.

Is nothing ever straight forward at Newcastle, The one thing I am glad about is ashleys business plan, ie come in and syphon as much as possible from the club, sell the assetts milner, nzogbia, given and hope we have just enough left to survive the premier league so he can also have the sky money has failed. He never had the clubs interest at heart, had total disregard for the fans and was only in it for financial gain. Now we are championship he realises there is no money to be made and is cutting his losses and running. Good riddance. I would have liked a quick return to the prem, but if we get in the right owners I will settle for an extra year in the ccc. Incidentally on the bright side roy keane joined the mackems well into the season and took them from near bottom to champions, so all is not lost.

What a joke of a club……If it`s not 1 thing it`s another. Wish i could buy the club but i don`t think i`d have shearer as manager. We are the laughing stock of the football world. MA is a football fan and wanted the fun of owning his own club….WHO WOULDN`T?? He hadn`t a clue of how it should be ran and should never let Chris Mort leave. He must be devestated at seeing his money going down the tubes with the little shit heeads like Owen using it up and giving nothin back.

He made some terrible mistakes with the club but we as football fans probably would have screwed it up too,although i think i would have got an expert in that had football club knowledge. Hope someone buys quickly as buyers will know they need to act fast to get the club in shape for the new season….they will need to have cash ready to use also.50 million on top of the price of the club. We need a proper Billionaire that will spend but have a good manager that doesn`t buy a load of cack. Please someone save this CIRCUS of a club

As others have explained throughout the day, the financial situation is a lot more complicated than that and he could no longer afford in reality to keep the club. While he has made many mistakes which have had serious consequences, at least he has admitted them. If it makes you feel better think of the massive loss he will have made when he sells the club. If we think things are bad now, what would have happened if he hadn’t of put his money in when he did and we didn’t have another buyer, that really would have been good night vienna. The perilous state of our finances when he bought the club keeps being swept aside, but anyone coming into a business that was haemorraghing money like NUFC was when he bought it has to significantly reduce costs for long term viability of the business. Things like outsourcing certain services to reduce operating costs and trying to maximise revenue by increasing prices where possible are normal business practices to try to improve profitability. Before you all start I am not an Ashley apologist but I think we need to keep a bit of perspective on what is a very bad situation.

I agree he has subsidised the club to an extent but surely his plan was just to survive, cut the wage bill, increase prices ( Its £ 2.80 for a small bottle of pop inside the ground where i sit) and sell our best players. Well it failed. percentage wise of my salary I have put far more into the club than he ever has and more than that I also give my 100% commitment. My heart aches for the love of the club, his aches cos its cost him some of his fortune.

The half year results released under Shepherd in his last season showed we were losing £1.5 million a month, it would of been higher than that apart from the one off payment we received from the FA for Owen’s injury.

The thing is financially Shepherd was running the club well until he financed Souness’ spending spree, then it just imploded.

Tel – I think he wanted to make the club self sufficient by cutting costs and when the club did become profitable then it could fund it’s own transfers, similar to the likes of Man Utd, Arsenal and Spurs.

Point taken perhaps I am just bitter at the mistakes made and the consequences. However I am still adamant if I was fortunate enough to have a paltry 700 mil bank balance, and more coming in from other profitable investments and businesses I would not hesitate to fund another couple of million. Thats because I love the club and he doesnt. More over he has made hard workin staff redundant and they cant have been on more than a couple of hundred quid a week. I think on that basis he had already decided to sell the club before entering the negotiations with shearer. There is nothing straight forward with him and his underhand dealings. As for profitable clubs I think you will find Man utd are in debt to the tune of £6oo million plus, since the glazers became owners. I dont see them selling rooney and co to balance the books.

If Duff will take a pay cut to £35/30K then great, keep him on and raise it slightly again if he stays fit and we get back up. BUT, do not sympathise with him because of these rallying calls, he is one of those on £50k+!

As for profitable clubs I think you will find Man utd are in debt to the tune of £6oo million plus, since the glazers became owners. I dont see them selling rooney and co to balance the books.

…….

There’s a big jump between being profitable and in debt and debt isn’t a bad thing as long as you can comfortably make payments while the club is self sufficient, back in 2008 they made an operating profit of £59 million which they can use to buy players.

We were making losses before we even thought about signing anyone, just over £20 million last season.

Great thing you started the donation part again Ed! I too sent you a couple of bucks! =)

I wonder when Mike will open his “donation” site on nufc.co.uk? Too hell with him.. I’m so sick and tired of the instability and mess he’s created at Newcastle. If I had the cash, I would most definately have bought Newcastle, as I think every one else here would!

But given the recession we’re in at the moment, anyone with £100m to spare, would most likely be wise enough to spend it elsewhere. The only ones who could be crazy enough to pull a stunt like this, would have to be someone with true love towards our beloved club.

So here we go again with the Toons annual Midsummer Madness. There isnt even any point in guessing any more, that’s how ridiculous it has all become.

Lets get down to the real interesting stuff – the nitty gritty.

Who is the big bloke that we see in all the pictures standing behind Ashley. Obviously some kind of hired hand, but how about an article on him? How do we get to him, and how much would it cost to get him to push Ashley down the stairs?

By the way, don’t worry too much about Ashley selling at a loss – the loss he made is no worse than the stuff he lost on his other businesses during the recession.

I’ve supported the Toon since 1955 (I was 7) & this is the worst situation I can remember & there have been some dire ones. I hope everything is done quickly & that Shearer is made manager & we get a team capable of getting us back in the PL, but hey I’m a dreamer you have to be to be a Toon supporter for more than 50 years.

Well even though, like almost everything else to do with the MA dynasty, the timing is a disaster and it leaves us even worse off than however bad we thought we were, there is some light in it. That is, if the papers and NUFC.com are correct that the debt to Ashley is being written off.; in other words, £90 million buys the entire club, with only a few debts remaining since Shepherd’s time. That does give plenty of scope for some buyer to have a bargain. leading to a) a quick sale and b) a price that will allow significant investment in the team and backroom staff. If it is true that Ashley is taking the hit on the deal in order to ensure a quick exit, and let both parties move on, that in itself is a good thing. If he’s going to go, at least he’s going fast and leaving the club probably financially sounder, even without the Prem revenue. Bearing in mind the papers are claiming Ancelotti will have 100 million to spend on transfers, getting NUFC plc. for less than that seems like a helluva bargain for some lucky investor. Lets just hope he is more serious and with longer term aims than the last owner.

Silly me I use dto think that pantomines were usually on around the Xmas time. With NUFC for the last few years its been a 12 month job! As for MA, well I was glad that he bought out the previous regime. IMHO his big mistake was to think that he could run a football club like a sports retailing empire. Because of this he didn’t appoint the right people to support him in this new venture, and when KK seemed to be pointing out a few facts to him, he listened to his “yes” men and not to anyone who knew waht they were talking about. After that it just worse and worse until eventually he had to face the obvious truth and sacked the very people who should have gone instead of KK. But where do we stand now? I would’nt mind if MA decided to stay provided he took a lot of good advice from people who know the football business. SBR could give him a few tips and pointers. Get rid of LLambias, and appoint a decent chairman who has both business sense and a real desire to see NUFC flourish. If he puts a few bob in (ok £20m) and makes the right appointments then there is a very strong possibility that we will return to the PL stronger, and the value of the club will rise. If in acouple of years he decides to sell at a profit, then fair play to him.

League Placement

health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

The cancer spread in the bones, but after having a number of CATscans last Friday the cancer has been stabilized and as of April 24th, 2018 it has not spread further.

There is no cure for Stage 4 cancer so I will continue to have CATscans and bone scans about every four months to check on the cancer.

It is as it is - I will do my best under the circumstances - it's another challenge.

Ed Harrison

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